I spend a lot of time and brain space on my professional life. I code, I write, I attend meetings and I code some more. I spend hours wrapped up in solving problems — usually with and in code.

Yesterday however I stopped. I read to my kids, I had light saber fights with my son, I played. I hung out with friends and laughed a lot.

It reminded me of how critical stopping is.

I came back with a few less items checked off my to-do list but, at the same time, refreshed and with new solutions to the problems I was working on.

There’s a designer’s maxim: steep yourself in the problem and then do something completely different and let your subconscious play with the pieces. It holds true for programmers and front-end developers too.

I don’t have to work at being steeped in problems, I do have to work at unplugging from it all. The funny part is when I make a habit of stopping I end up more productive than I would have been otherwise. Win-win.